Of the many expressions attributed to playwrite William Shakespeare used in everyday life, there are numerous, though lesser known, references to wine. Among them are:

Give me a bowl of wine. In this I bury all unkindness - Julius Caesar:

Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used; exclaim no more against it - Othello:

I am falser than vows made in wine - As You Like It

A man cannot make him laugh - but that's no marvel; he drinks no wine - Henry IV Part 2

Give me a bowl of wine. I have not that alacrity of spirit nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have - The Tragedy of King Richard the Third

Give me some wine, fill full. I drink to the whole table - Macbeth

O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil! - Othello the Moor of Venice

Other Shakespeare wine quotes:

The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees is left this vault to brag of.

Good wine needs no bush.

Come, thou monarch of the vine, Plumpy Bacchus with pink eye.

The wine-cup is the little silver well,
Where truth, if truth there be, doth dwell.

Locally produced Santa Cruz wines are served each season at the Shakespeare Santa Cruz Festival, normally running from mid-July through August.

2009 season opens with glowing reviews

Local reviewer Christina Waters writes in part on Santa Cruz.com, “Artistic director Marco Barricelli has assembled a company of professionals capable of delivering every line, every innuendo, every delicious pun, with intelligence and style. Many times during opening night I had to pinch myself. Was I in New York? Was this a Broadway production?”

For ticket and seating info click here

Related article by June Smith

Midsummer Night's Dream - photo R.R. Jones